Solved Sound is messed up, but no voices.

I was watching a movie streaming today and suddenly the voices were gone. I tried another and another, but no voices. I get sound like cars, audiences laughing, and music, but no conversations can be heard. I popped in several dvd's including a sermon by a Rabbai friend, and still no voices. I have updated all drivers since then and everything is current. I have fiddled in the device menus and done several google searches, but to no avail. This is really important to fix as I am a singer/songwriter, and if I cannot playback the music I record then I am sunk.

It sure sounds like it was just a poor contact in a connector.But it could possibly be a broken wire in a cable. It couldalso be any of a bunch of less-likely possibilities.

If your sound is connected with 1/8" plugs and jacks, or RCAconnectors, then you could test to see if unplugging the mainspeakers (lime green-colored jack on your computer) hasexactly the same effect as your problem. If so, then checkthat cable to be sure it doesn't have a break and that theplugs fit the jacks solidly. If it is okay, it may simply have notbeen plugged in tightly. I just had a picture fall off my wall thathad been hanging there for at least 15 years. I think the airis so dry from heating that the picture warped and poppedoff the mount. Things can appear to be fine for a long timebefore something causes them to fail.

I've been pondering as to why "all sounds except voices". One thing that comes to mind is that if the the recorded voice happens to be out of phase left-right (ie reversed on one of the channels) then if your plug or connecting cables are shorting out then this would cause the voice to be cancelled and therefore vanish or reduce considerably. For this to be true you should find other situations where the sound is quite normal (unless your cabling is reversed on one channel).

So, as said, cables, plugs or sockets. If the voice comes and goes when you wiggle a plug or cable that would give you a clue where the problem lies.

In my reply above I was forgetting that the original poster saidthat the material he was listening to was being streamed overthe Internet. I was thinking that he has a fancy sound systemwith multiple speakers, and the main, front pair of speakerscut out while the others were unaffected. But I doubt that videostreamed over the Internet has multiple channels like that.And I doubt that all the sound sources he tried would havemultiple channels, allowing background and effects soundsbut not the primary sounds in all cases.

Talitim, what kind of cable(s) are you using? 1/8" plugs?HDMI? Something else?

It was on a Desktop PC. The speakers are cerwin Vega. 2 speakers only. Connected by RCA to 3.5. I am not sure what happened, but sound still works fine. I did change out the connecter yesterday, but was having no problems with the old one. The sound problem was not only streaming, but DVD and CD as well. I am not having the trouble any longer. Not sure what the problem was.

The reason it happens is what Derek was describing, phase cancellation.

It happens when only the positive signal from each channel is used. When the plug isn't inserted all the way, one connection from the plug gets the signal from the positive connection from the left channel of the jack. The negative connection on the plug gets the positive signal from the right connection of the jack.

What you end up with is a signal that is the sum of everything that is in stereo, anything recorded in mono (which is usually voices) is cancelled out.

I hope your explanation is right, because I'm going to make itan important part of my understanding of how things work!

After Derek posted I was thinking more and more that it mustbe due to phase cancellation somehow, but it didn't make senseto me that only the voices would go out. Voices being recordedin mono, effects in stereo makes sense, and I understand howmono in reversed phase reduces the volume.

I agree with the general premise that the voice is usually central (effectively mono). However, I have run into some tracks where the singer was displaced to the right or left of center. In these instances a phase cancelling effect could go unnoticed - hence my suggestion that some audio would sound OK.

My thinking was based on the days when I used to build amplifiers and used stereo record pickups. If you had a reversed channel at the pickup, then linked the channels at the amplifier by switching to mono [they had mono switches in those days] the singer sounded as if he/she was at the end of a very long tube.

In fact to this very day if I want to record an old 78 rpm record (lateral variations only) shorting the stereo pickup input will at least cancel the vertical hiss due to record wear or damage. I have a plug-in cable arrangement to do this. Vertical variations are only necessary for stereo records or some obscure and very ancient "hill and dale" records - including laterally tracked clockwork phonograph cylinders.

Long before the days of Dolby pro logic synthesized surround, you could actually buy devices that would do exactly what I described. It created somewhat of a rear surround effect.

Here's an experiment you can try, take a speaker and connect it to the positive terminal of the left and right channel of your stereo/receiver/amplifier. You will hear what the OP is describing. It will be everything that is the difference between the left and right channel. Everything that is equally common (mono) in both channels will be canceled out.

Derek, you must dabble in audio quite a bit. Your description of reducing hiss in mono recordings and 78's is a common method known to audio engineers, but not known by most people.

We've strayed a bit but I'm of the opinion that some of the things you learn over the years, which you subsequently deem too outdated to matter, can suddenly have some current value. Principles never change - take Ohms Law for instance.

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